The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1887-08-04
Sixty Human Skeletons.

There was in Putnam county, before
the war for seventy-years, road with
in three miles of Cookeville, leading
from Louisville, KY, through this
State down into Georgia and South
Carolina, and was known as the KEN
lucky stock road. and was at that time
the principal highway for traders be-
tween the two sections
Planters, slave dealers, and stock
men would drive their negroes, mules,
etc, down to the Southern market, re-
turning with the money from their
sales. Such parties were frequently
missing very mysteriously, no trace of
them ever being found.
The road ran through a wild, thinly
settled, mountainous country, the stop
ping places or dwellings where a
traveller could get shelter frequently
being thirty or forty miles apart, and,
as recent investigations show, were
kept BY robbers and murderers of the
worst description, who for years fol-
lowed this business of wholesale robbery
and murder.
About thirty years ago a man who Is
citize> of Cookevville found a skele-
ton at the entrance to cave, but no
further investigation was ever made
until yesterday, and it was left for a
stranger To make discoveries that east
in the shade all stories of like descrip-
ton where the writer finds his terri
bic characters only in his own brain.
A party was organized under the
leadership of Mr.. Ferd Kincaid to eX-
plore the cave where the skeleton was
found thirty years ago. Back on the
mountain side, about one-half mile
from one of the notorious stopping
places described. is the entrance to the
cave.
A hole something like WELL going
straight down thirty-five feet, was first
passed through, and the cave opens in
to large cayerns with downward
course under the mountain. At the
bottom of the shaft the party found
human bones, and with a little dig
ging in the debris that had accumula-
ted at this point unearthed about sixty
skeletons Of men who had been muir
dered and thrown down this hole.
Some skulls were found with bullet
| holes through them, others having
been mashed with al ak or instrument
of that kind. An old citizen now living
in this vicinity says that the keepers
of these dens would keep track of
travellers when they passed through
with stock, and on their return
they would be almost certain to dis
appear.
The robbers were even so bold that
they would take the clothing, saddles,
and horses of their victims and use
them publicly. They would get man
drunk if possible, and as whisky was
plenty and the custom of drinking
common, it was no hard matter to do
them in their drunken stupor, kill
and rob and throw their bodies into
this hole.
Without doubt many men, as this
fearful disclosure proves, never re-
turned to their homes, and anxious
friends waited and watched and Won
dered why they never returned.
Not far off, by the side of the road
still stands house. The walls of one
room are spattered with human blood.
Above in the mountains about twenty
miles was still worse place, if posi-
bic. than this.
Another cave is there. and would, if
investigated, repeat the sickening story
Of yesterdays investigation. The peo-
pie are much excited over this dis
cuyery, as many descendants of the
robher gang are still living all through
Putnam County. but dead men tell no
tales. and the HISTORY OF these fearful
crimes VIII never be known.-NaSb-
Ctiie Letter IN Memphis .irujaHche